A New Start
by Wingedmidnight88
Summary: Harvest Moon - Another Wonderful Life - Winry (Jill) wanted a new start, to get away from her old city life, maybe find some love. Something seems to click with the man at the nearby farm and his name is Marlin.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

I couldn't believe it, my father, dead, just like that, he was gone out of my life forever. I had sobbed into the pillow of my bed of my one room apartment for hours until I cried myself to sleep. When I woke up, the skin on my face felt tight and tearstained as I looked into the mirror on my cheap dresser and saw my droopy, bloodshot eyes, tired and sad. The phone rang, I didn't feel like dealing with people so I let the answering machine record whoever was calling.

"Hi Winry, um it's me Jason, look, I have a feeling that this relationship isn't working and. . . . I think we should move on. I'm sorry ~_click!_~"

The voice ended with a click as the receiver was hung from the caller. I glared at the machine and angrily yelled incoherently at it and cursed my former boyfriend for discarding me so quickly, possibly for another woman. Jason and I had been together for about two weeks. _How could he do this to me? _I thought angrily as I tossed her pillow at the answering machine. It wasn't fair! For the first time in a long time, I had a boyfriend, and now he's gone.

I'm twenty one and I have dark, think brown hair that drives me crazy sometimes, fair skin and complexion, I've never really had a pimple or weight problem and I have my driver's license, but I always feel really nervous behind the wheel and don't drive very often, sometimes not at all and just take a bus to wherever I need to go. I didn't have many friends, I'm pretty quiet and shy, and usually keep to myself. I have almost no experience with men and just thinking about some cute guy notice me, I get the "stupids".

I shook my head to try and clear my mind and remembered my dad as tears sprang into my eyes again, I wiped them away and remember that he had a farm with his partner, Takakura and his dream was to have a family farm, make it grow and flourish with happiness and life. I pondered the subject for some time when it reached me, I decided that I could give it a shot, I was getting tired of the city and it's pollution, noises, people and wanted to start anew. I stared down at the blank sheet of white floral stationary before carefully writing down words in pen and looked the bright red envelop addressed to Takakura. I carefully folded and put the letter in the envelope, licked the dry glue and sealed the envelope neatly.

About a month later I after got rid of most of my junk, donating it to the local Salvation Army or Goodwill, I loaded the rest of my belongings into an old suitcase, all of my of rough, sturdy jeans, a few small skirts to go over the zipper of the pants, some of my favorite shirts, which were generally sturdy and pair of red and black gloves the had strong Velcro at the wrists for extra security, my "unmentionables" and put my hair up into a pony tail and gave a thirty day notice to my landlord when I had planned the trip. I looked back to the rather sad looking apartment and left.


	2. Meeting the Neighbors

**Chapter One**

**A New Life**

"Well, this is it" Takakura had said as he showed me around the beaten-down looking farm. "The buildings may be old, but they're still usable" I acknowledged with a nod. He had shown me the pasture field and told me that I needed to purchase some fertilizer for it to grow and be harvested for feed for any livestock. I nodded, understanding. We walked to a small building with a tin roof, "This is the chicken coop wh-" the man's sentence was cut short by the sharp barking of two dogs that approached us and whimpered quietly. One dog had floppy ears and tan-brown fur, the other had pointed ears and a lighter shade of tan.

"Must be strays. . . They seem to like you. . . .Oh, alright. Do you want one? I'm not too fond of dogs, so only one."

I smiled and knelt to the floppy eared one and plucked him up "I'm going to call you Sonny!"

"Alright, I'll find a good home for this one in the city" he said as he looked down to the dog with pointed ears and gestured to the one in my arms, "I'll build him a dog house later" He showed me the rest of the shed, storage room and explained that I put dairy and produce products for him the ship in the morning, the house where I was supposed to live if I decided to stay. "C'mere, I have a surprise" he said as he beckoned me into the barn. I followed him into the building and saw a white cow with black spots munching on hay. It reminded me of the cows in a big pasture that I used to walk past on my way home from school when I was younger. I smiled, rushed over to her and wrapped my arms around her "Oh, I love her!" A small, hardly noticeable smile was shown on Takakura's face, "Good, she's yours, she needs a name." The name popped into my head as soon as I saw her, _Betsy_, a classic cow name I thought with a smile as I repeated the name out loud, "Betsy."

"Betsy, the name of our first cow, this calls for celebration. Now, she gave birth about ten days ago, so you can milk her about twice a day." I nodded as the newly christened Betsy gave a contented moo. "By the way, have you thought of a name for this farm?" I looked at him, as we left the barn, "You want _me_ to name it?" He nodded, "Well um. . . Dad always liked astronomy, so how about Oberon? I think he liked that one the best." I said with a sad smile. "A fitting name, Oberon it is then."

He sighed quietly, "Well you're young and probably need friends. I'm not so sociable but I'll introduce you as best I can." He said as we began walking down the hill that led to and from the farm and village. We reached an oriental style looking building that was two stories tall. We stopped in front of a rather short stocky woman who wore a kind smile, a rather round looking man, and a fairly attractive young man about my age, I assumed, who I assumed to be their son, despite looking almost nothing like them, apart from his light brown eyes that matched the couple beside him. He had short blond hair and grin. "This is Tim and Ruby, and their son Rock. They run the Inner Inn, how should I introduce you?" I smiled a shy smile, "Winry is fine." The young man called Rock, took my hand and kissed it, causing my face to blossom into an embarrassing red hue. "Pleased to meet you" he added with a wink.

I averted my eyes uncomfortably as Takakura gestured to the upper floor of the building, "A girl named Nami is staying on the second floor." I looked up to see a girl I assumed to be around my age, maybe a little older, ruffled fiery red hair and pale skin standing on the balcony of the second floor give me a cold stare as she shuffled back into the building. I blinked and looked back to Takakura as he walked toward another building, he beckoned me to follow him with a nod. I followed him as I looked back to the family to see Rock grinning mischievously at me.


End file.
